She tried to call us last night (left a message on our machine) and then called us early this morning. Let me say that our pediatrician NEVER calls us like this! Never! I knew something was up. Trust me when I say I was praying it wasn't something bad. Finally, after playing a little phone tag, we hooked up and she told us that Matthew has a "parasite" living in his intestines! OH WONDERFUL! *insert scream here* (I'm trying to find some sort of laugh here, but really NOT finding one.)
We were told to get up to our pharmacist immediately and retrieve the medicine for Matthew and start it ASAP! Needless to say, we dropped our working outside and raking and laying mulch down, got cleaned up a little and went to our neighborhood Giant! This medicine Matthew has is potent! Stinks like crazy, is flavored like GRAPE (which Matthew sees through and doesn't like to take), and has a metallic taste to it! For a little 2 1/2 year old, don't you think it's enough already?!? The shots, the probing in the mouth, the meds, the testing, etc. Poor guy. I totally feel for my little boy! And now there is a little "bug" living in him?!
Only Daddy and myself (Mommy) can clean or change Matthew and yes, there are steps to take in order that WE may not get infected with this parasite. NO sharing of cups, no sharing of bath water, etc. Wow............can we say mommy has to disinfect THE WHOLE BATHROOM and where we change Matthew?! Oh Lord, please let this TOO pass! Literally!!!!
In retro? Our family is still going strong. Matthew doesn't like pepperoni's too much, or now? Grape or the metallic taste, not sure. He has a bug, but life still goes on!!!!
PS, the welcome home party from our church was today. It was nice. The kids went nuts, lots of food, lots of friendly faces........ONE BIG WHEEL FOR MATTHEW! I don't know if anyone had a picture of his face, but let's just say it was HUGE EYES!!!!
Important dates:
Saturday, March 31, 2007
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Children's Hospital - Good news??
Well, we went to Children's Hospital today. It wasn't too bad to actually get to, but the hospital itself was WONDERFUL! What a working organism the way they get you where you need to go and everyone was soooooo helpful! We went to the 4400 wing/floor which is the surgical/cranialfacial area and the room was FULL of little toddlers/a few tweens. We didn't wait long though. We signed in, filled out some paperwork and in 15 minutes, BOOM, we were in the exam room. Within 5 minutes Dr. Murthy showed up and started talking with us and with Matthew. Funny thing, Matthew didn't want anything to do with Dr. Murthy! LOL......the doctor tried to touch him to see his face and Matthew didn't want ANYTHING to do with him and put his hands up to me (Momma) to pick him up. ***For those of you who don't know, this is a VERY excellent thing!!!!! Bonding! Matthew has/is bonding with me to the point that he knows I'm mommy and others are strangers!!! YES!!! This is what SHOULD happen!! Thank you Lord!!***
Anywho.....Dr. Murthy was patient and we ended up putting Matthew face up on half of the doctor's knees and half on mommy. That worked just fine. Matthew opened up his mouth and allowed the doctor to see everything he needed to. MATTHEW'S CLEFT PALATE HAS BEEN FIXED BY CHINA!! Is this a good thing? Yes and no. Dr. Murthy said that yes it was fixed but Matthew has a fistula (the hole behind his teeth). From the looks of it it's been awhile since his cleft palate surgery. *** Our adoption agency nor us knew ANYTHING about this surgery! China never said a thing. NADA!*** The doc said that it wasn't a bad fix, but that "he" could have definitely done better! I tell ya, as a parent, I was happy to see that he had a cleft palate surgery, but in the next breath, to hear that it wasn't a "good" fix???? Let's just say, your heart sinks! Your mad, sad, happy, angry.......all of the above. I wanted to cry, knowing that he could have had a better fix of his cleft palate and his cleft lip.....but like the doc said, we work with what we have, nothing more, nothing less. He went over what would happen with Matthew from now til he turns about 10 years old. He will need quite a bit of extensive work done until about the age of 10. Dr. Murthy took pictures of Matthew's lips/face. (By the way, Matthew's lip is misaligned, which we already knew, but the doc said a quick "nip" would fix that with no problems. The fistula too. BUT.........we need to wait until we know what Matthew can speak!)
We have two things going against us at the moment. First, he is just learning english, so speech is SLOW.........and second? Because of his cleft palate, we don't know what he can truly say and what he can't. If he cannot speak properly, they can do surgery to semicorrect that, but if he can speak then they will NOT do surgery and concentrate more on the speech therapy. So......NO MORE SIGN LANGUAGE for Matthew. He needs to start SPEAKING! We have to make him speak. Make him ask for things. No more guessing.....or just knowing what he wants!! Hopefully we can do this with no problems. We'll see. ***keep your fingers crossed***
Anyway, to make it short and sweet, we have another appointment and instead of the surgeon, which Dr. Murthy is, we will meet with the WHOLE Cranialfacial team. It will be an ALL DAY AFFAIR! From 11:30am to 4:30pm, May 1st. We will know more then. We will know what they want to do and when and to what!
Thank you guys for your prayers. Seeing Children's Hospital for the first time and seeing how they do things was VERY nice! I can't say enough about them!!!
Anywho.....Dr. Murthy was patient and we ended up putting Matthew face up on half of the doctor's knees and half on mommy. That worked just fine. Matthew opened up his mouth and allowed the doctor to see everything he needed to. MATTHEW'S CLEFT PALATE HAS BEEN FIXED BY CHINA!! Is this a good thing? Yes and no. Dr. Murthy said that yes it was fixed but Matthew has a fistula (the hole behind his teeth). From the looks of it it's been awhile since his cleft palate surgery. *** Our adoption agency nor us knew ANYTHING about this surgery! China never said a thing. NADA!*** The doc said that it wasn't a bad fix, but that "he" could have definitely done better! I tell ya, as a parent, I was happy to see that he had a cleft palate surgery, but in the next breath, to hear that it wasn't a "good" fix???? Let's just say, your heart sinks! Your mad, sad, happy, angry.......all of the above. I wanted to cry, knowing that he could have had a better fix of his cleft palate and his cleft lip.....but like the doc said, we work with what we have, nothing more, nothing less. He went over what would happen with Matthew from now til he turns about 10 years old. He will need quite a bit of extensive work done until about the age of 10. Dr. Murthy took pictures of Matthew's lips/face. (By the way, Matthew's lip is misaligned, which we already knew, but the doc said a quick "nip" would fix that with no problems. The fistula too. BUT.........we need to wait until we know what Matthew can speak!)
We have two things going against us at the moment. First, he is just learning english, so speech is SLOW.........and second? Because of his cleft palate, we don't know what he can truly say and what he can't. If he cannot speak properly, they can do surgery to semicorrect that, but if he can speak then they will NOT do surgery and concentrate more on the speech therapy. So......NO MORE SIGN LANGUAGE for Matthew. He needs to start SPEAKING! We have to make him speak. Make him ask for things. No more guessing.....or just knowing what he wants!! Hopefully we can do this with no problems. We'll see. ***keep your fingers crossed***
Anyway, to make it short and sweet, we have another appointment and instead of the surgeon, which Dr. Murthy is, we will meet with the WHOLE Cranialfacial team. It will be an ALL DAY AFFAIR! From 11:30am to 4:30pm, May 1st. We will know more then. We will know what they want to do and when and to what!
Thank you guys for your prayers. Seeing Children's Hospital for the first time and seeing how they do things was VERY nice! I can't say enough about them!!!
Friday, March 23, 2007
More Pictures of the day we left China!
Maryland or BUST! (One way or another!)
The kids at San Francisco airport eating SUBWAY!
Anne our guide in Guangzhou!
Pediatrician follow-up.......oh boy!
Well, like we didn't know this one...........The vaccinations that Matthew has gotten, there is only ONE that he actually has immunity to! GO FIGURE! (Rebecca had at least 3!) Hepatitis B is the only thing Matthew has immunity to! Geez.... it never ceases to amaze me. Why? WHO KNOWS! Anyway.......Matthew's ear infection is just about gone. He is grabbing his ear still and the pediatrician thinks that before he couldn't hear too well out of that ear and now he can. She checked both ears and said he was good to go to Children's Hospital next week. (yeah) She also said that his bloodwork looks pretty good but that some of the bloodwork isn't back just yet. (Had to be sent out from Calvert Memorial Hospital.) Polio is one of them. She is almost positive he has NO immunity but just wants to make sure.
It's interesting, Matthew had 4, count them 4 DTaP shots/boosters and NOT ONE OF THEM TOOK! NOT ONE! Our pediatrician was just dumbfounded at that one. The only thing she could think of is that the vaccine must be out of date or not strong enough or something like that. I just shake my head. Matthew was a trooper today!!! He got 4 shots, 2 in each leg. THEN, to make insult to injury, she did a TB test on him. Hopefully it will be negative. We'll see come Monday morning. (Mom has to check the spot and call the office.) Another McDonald's day for Matthew. Chicken Nuggets are his favorite but will eat hamburgers. He's gained a little bit of weight, which the doc said she was very pleased to see. (Sometimes when adopted kids get back into the country, because of all the changes and new things/new foods, they won't eat.) NOT MATTHEW! I told her he eats ANYTHING and EVERYTHING he can!!! She just laughed.
One thing that needed to be mentioned was his "shaking". We first saw this in China but didn't think twice about it because he was so weak and just couldn't feed himself. But even back in the states, he is still shaking like an old man. It doesn't last long, but it's usually always when he first gets up to eat. This morning I held him to see if I could feel him shaking or if it was a seizure or something and I couldn't feel it. I stood him upright, standing up, and for the life of him he could NOT stay still or stand straight. I asked the pediatrician about this and she said as long as it goes away with me holding him or just goes away period, not to worry about it. (He's not anemic, he's not diabetic, nothing like that.....*already checked it*) Hopefully it will go away. It's not everyday. Just sometimes.
Poor guy, I felt for Matthew when he was half asleep on the exam table and here comes the pediatrician with her assistant to administer 4 shots! OUCH!!! I had to hold his arms. BOY DID I GET THE LOOKS AT THAT ONE!!!! *bad mommy*
Ear infection almost gone, CHECK. Heart loud but ok and good, CHECK. Next up? Children's Hospital! I hope we can get his cleft palate fixed ASAP! Just to help his speech alone!
Oh yeah.........potty training has commenced! Twice today! GO FIGURE! I'm not going to stop him! GO Matthew! GO Matthew! Going potty, GO Matthew! LOL
It's interesting, Matthew had 4, count them 4 DTaP shots/boosters and NOT ONE OF THEM TOOK! NOT ONE! Our pediatrician was just dumbfounded at that one. The only thing she could think of is that the vaccine must be out of date or not strong enough or something like that. I just shake my head. Matthew was a trooper today!!! He got 4 shots, 2 in each leg. THEN, to make insult to injury, she did a TB test on him. Hopefully it will be negative. We'll see come Monday morning. (Mom has to check the spot and call the office.) Another McDonald's day for Matthew. Chicken Nuggets are his favorite but will eat hamburgers. He's gained a little bit of weight, which the doc said she was very pleased to see. (Sometimes when adopted kids get back into the country, because of all the changes and new things/new foods, they won't eat.) NOT MATTHEW! I told her he eats ANYTHING and EVERYTHING he can!!! She just laughed.
One thing that needed to be mentioned was his "shaking". We first saw this in China but didn't think twice about it because he was so weak and just couldn't feed himself. But even back in the states, he is still shaking like an old man. It doesn't last long, but it's usually always when he first gets up to eat. This morning I held him to see if I could feel him shaking or if it was a seizure or something and I couldn't feel it. I stood him upright, standing up, and for the life of him he could NOT stay still or stand straight. I asked the pediatrician about this and she said as long as it goes away with me holding him or just goes away period, not to worry about it. (He's not anemic, he's not diabetic, nothing like that.....*already checked it*) Hopefully it will go away. It's not everyday. Just sometimes.
Poor guy, I felt for Matthew when he was half asleep on the exam table and here comes the pediatrician with her assistant to administer 4 shots! OUCH!!! I had to hold his arms. BOY DID I GET THE LOOKS AT THAT ONE!!!! *bad mommy*
Ear infection almost gone, CHECK. Heart loud but ok and good, CHECK. Next up? Children's Hospital! I hope we can get his cleft palate fixed ASAP! Just to help his speech alone!
Oh yeah.........potty training has commenced! Twice today! GO FIGURE! I'm not going to stop him! GO Matthew! GO Matthew! Going potty, GO Matthew! LOL
Thursday, March 22, 2007
Cardiologist appointment today
Today we had our appointment with the pediatric cardiologist. It went quite well, actually. He had an EKG done (which he was quite still for and was SOOOO good) and he also had a doppler ultrasound w/3D imaging. (This was REALLY, REALLY cool to look at. So cool that Matthew wanted to see it too as the technician was doing it.) After that, we saw the doctor and he read the tests and said that they were perfect! He saw NO abnormalties. He listened to Matthew's heart and took his blood pressure and said, "Yep, he has a murmur alright and it's quite pronounced. *meaning loud*". Other than that, it's a "Innocent Stilles Murmur".......layman's terms? It's something that Matthew will either grow out of or not. It will NOT hold him back from doing anything. It's just something that we have to keep track of and that's it. Oh, Matthew could grow outta it or it could come back. It's just the way his heart works....and the way his chambers within his heart work. Plain and simple. So YEAH GOD! Thank you for all the prayers!!!! His heart is just fine and LOUD! :o)
On another good note, this morning before we left for the cardiologists office, Matthew came up to me (Mommy) and pointed to the bathroom. I asked if he had to go to the bathroom and he shook his head YES. DO YOU KNOW THAT HE USED THE POTTY?!?!?! He did both things that he needed to do and then fell in the potty! Why did he fall in the potty? Because Mommy was too busy calling daddy to tell him that his son was using the potty!!!! (All mommy could do was laugh as Matthew wasn't too happy about it!) ROFL Too funny! Matthew now uses the Dora the Explorer "little potty" made for little, um, bums! LOL
Ok, now tomorrow we head back to the pediatricians office for a follow up on his ear infection. I know Matthew still grabs his left ear. I'm not sure the infection is gone. I hope it's better. Maybe we'll get his results of his hospital tests.
Anyway, REJOICE with us that our son's heart is loud and OK!!!!!!!!!!
On another good note, this morning before we left for the cardiologists office, Matthew came up to me (Mommy) and pointed to the bathroom. I asked if he had to go to the bathroom and he shook his head YES. DO YOU KNOW THAT HE USED THE POTTY?!?!?! He did both things that he needed to do and then fell in the potty! Why did he fall in the potty? Because Mommy was too busy calling daddy to tell him that his son was using the potty!!!! (All mommy could do was laugh as Matthew wasn't too happy about it!) ROFL Too funny! Matthew now uses the Dora the Explorer "little potty" made for little, um, bums! LOL
Ok, now tomorrow we head back to the pediatricians office for a follow up on his ear infection. I know Matthew still grabs his left ear. I'm not sure the infection is gone. I hope it's better. Maybe we'll get his results of his hospital tests.
Anyway, REJOICE with us that our son's heart is loud and OK!!!!!!!!!!
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
OH MY GOSH! I'm OVER the moon!!!!
I was putting Matthew down for a nap and guess what he did?!?!?!? I've been kissing him goodnight and play kissing with him (I'm guessing he has NO clue what a kiss is or what being tickled is like, even though we now do that to him too!) and peak a boo, stuff like that..............well, he kissed me just barely on my lips and said, lala. (he says that alot for numerous things) I AM JUST SO HAPPY! HE GETS THAT! HE GETS KISSES!!!!!!!!!! OH man!!!!!
Ok, just had to tell ya! I'm so excited and happy, once he wakes up, I wanna make sure that that wasn't just a fluke! LOL......wait til daddy gets home!!!!
Ok, just had to tell ya! I'm so excited and happy, once he wakes up, I wanna make sure that that wasn't just a fluke! LOL......wait til daddy gets home!!!!
We are amazed, every single day by our Matthew!
Yesterday we got our Chinese documents translated from our adoption agency (Children's House International) with the help of Stefani and Charlene, so I ran them up to our pediatrician's office with Matthew in tow. He LOVES to go "bye-bye". He gets his own coat/hat and shoes! It's so cute! So went up to the office, the doctor looked over his vaccines and decided to order all his tithers/tests. OH MY GOSH! 22 tests all-in-all. The hospital had to actually call the pediatrician's office to make sure this is what she wanted. (and it was) Then came the drawing of blood! I was expecting the worst, because of Rebecca. She tossed, turned, threw her arms wailing every which way, wiggled out of the hands of 3 people......NOT Matthew. He whimpered the first stick. They ended up blowing his little vein. (Poor thing. No discoloration though.) Then the more experienced philbotamist tried. (he was holding Matthew's arm just in case he got aggressive. He ended up seeing better veins in Matthew's hands so they went through his hand, near his knuckles. GOT IT! It took about 15 minutes, with the help of a suction syringe, he filled 2 weird looking viles. That was it. They got what they needed and then started filling the numerous viles they needed. Let me say this: HE FILLED UP 10 VILES!!!!!!!!!!! NO LIE! They said there was only a limited amount they could get from "little folks" like Matthew, but OH MY GOSH! Do you know how many labels they had? 10! I couldn't believe it. Our little Matthew didn't scream, didn't cry, didn't say a word. NOTHING!
Wow.....I was so proud of him. Momma took him right to Donald's for a nice lunch! He loved it! The male philbotamist gave him SPIDERMAN stickers and Matthew was in heaven!! You couldn't part those with him! The band-aid took up just about his whole hand! He pointed to it and wanted to know what it was. (It sure wasn't a Diego or Backyardigans band-aid that MOM has at home!) Oh Lord, we were so proud of him!!!
One thing about the vaccines that our pediatrician noticed. Hepatitis tests were done on Matthew and it was conflicting? Not sure about that. Please Lord! NO MORE SURPRISES! Just to be on the safe side, Matthew is having a full Hepatitis profile done on him. I'm hoping it was just because he had the hep shots and maybe was developing an immunity to it? We'll see. Either way, we'll deal with it! God says He doesn't give you more than you can handle!!!
Today, Wednesday, we have collected 2 more "specimens" for the hospital to test. We will head up to the hospital a little later on today to drop those off. After that? It's just a MOMMY and Matthew day!!! I think a good day at the park would be good for Matthew. Maybe some lunch and then who knows? Maybe a trip to TArget to bring other's TA's?! :o)
Ok, tomorrow is the cardiologist and mommy/daddy are both going. We are hoping for the best! OH YEAH.........please pray that BCBS will put Matthew in their system by TODAY! Him not being in the system, as of yet, is really COSTING us bigtime! We have to pay for everything upfront (w/o insurance). His antibiotic he needed alone, for his ear infection was almost $100! *ouch* Thanks......pray that Matthew's heart is fine and dandy and that all testing done on him will turn out just fine!
*pray for mommy's sanity too.......it's hard to watch him go through all these tests! He lets them do it but I'm there with him and I feel like such the villian! Especially when he looks at me while they are doing it.*
Until then.....
Wow.....I was so proud of him. Momma took him right to Donald's for a nice lunch! He loved it! The male philbotamist gave him SPIDERMAN stickers and Matthew was in heaven!! You couldn't part those with him! The band-aid took up just about his whole hand! He pointed to it and wanted to know what it was. (It sure wasn't a Diego or Backyardigans band-aid that MOM has at home!) Oh Lord, we were so proud of him!!!
One thing about the vaccines that our pediatrician noticed. Hepatitis tests were done on Matthew and it was conflicting? Not sure about that. Please Lord! NO MORE SURPRISES! Just to be on the safe side, Matthew is having a full Hepatitis profile done on him. I'm hoping it was just because he had the hep shots and maybe was developing an immunity to it? We'll see. Either way, we'll deal with it! God says He doesn't give you more than you can handle!!!
Today, Wednesday, we have collected 2 more "specimens" for the hospital to test. We will head up to the hospital a little later on today to drop those off. After that? It's just a MOMMY and Matthew day!!! I think a good day at the park would be good for Matthew. Maybe some lunch and then who knows? Maybe a trip to TArget to bring other's TA's?! :o)
Ok, tomorrow is the cardiologist and mommy/daddy are both going. We are hoping for the best! OH YEAH.........please pray that BCBS will put Matthew in their system by TODAY! Him not being in the system, as of yet, is really COSTING us bigtime! We have to pay for everything upfront (w/o insurance). His antibiotic he needed alone, for his ear infection was almost $100! *ouch* Thanks......pray that Matthew's heart is fine and dandy and that all testing done on him will turn out just fine!
*pray for mommy's sanity too.......it's hard to watch him go through all these tests! He lets them do it but I'm there with him and I feel like such the villian! Especially when he looks at me while they are doing it.*
Until then.....
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